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Best CPU: 10 top processors from AMD and Intel

TechRadar has published and article listing (their) top 10 processors from Intel and AMD. They ranked them according to their "value for the money".

What makes a processor great depends on two factors: how much you want to spend on it and what you want to do with it. It doesn't seem logical to spend £100 on a processor destined to be at the heart of a gaming rig and you would probably be bonkers to spend £500 on a CPU only to do word processing: achieving the best possible value for your money is what we're after.

AMD aim Opteron at the Cloud

Black eyed and swollen lip, AMD has been through tremendous times financially with dud product launches and luke warm performance to its competitors. But, not one to throw in the towel, the company is now aiming their processors at the cloud. The Opteron 4300 and 3300 based server processors featuring a maximum of eight cores and 15% performance increase over the predecessor as well as socket compatible. Check out the blurb here.

Cisco doing the silicon shuffle

Big things are happening for the network giants called Cisco. Earlier last week, the company was rumored to be shopping their consumer brand, Linksys, who have not exactly worked out well from the Umbrella of the Cisco brand. However, other brands may be on the table for the network mammoth to pursue. Starting with Citrix, who have been a growing player in the virtualization market. NetApp, who have been another growing figure in the Storage market as well as Rackspace, who have been a dominant player in the Datacenter and Hosted services market. Sounds juicy? Well it could be if Cisco has their way. Check out the blurb here.

Juniper goes after the SDN market

For those of you who may not remember, there was a network company not too long that spun off from the Cisco engineers and management and formed a company called Juniper. While Juniper may not be the Top tier brand known as their rival Cisco, they are making moves in recent news. The company has sought after an a start up called, Contrail systems. Contrail is a company involved in the development of Software Defined Network controllers. If you don't know what an SDN is, check out more here(think of it as the evolution to network switching). Juniper will acquire Contrail Systems for $176m and will bring more details early in 2013. This moves puts them in closer competition with arch rival, Cisco as well Hewlett Packard. Check out the blurb here.

China gives birth to Godson, rival Intel

Many people reading only think of China as a manufacturing capital. While, that is true they also have other forth coming products. Such as their latest processor, Godson. Godson is the current chip that China has been toting for their Supercomputers. With hopes to enter the PC market, the company is also looking at diversifying the chips compatibility with routers and switches and firewalls. Check out the blurb here.

HP intros the Proliant SL4500 series Server

Hewlett Packard, well known for it's tier 1 server grade products have introduced a new server to their Proliant server series called the SL4500. The SL4500 focus is on big data. It features Intel's Xeon E5-2400 series in a 1-2way socket configuration with up to 8 cores, and up to 192GB of memory capacity and up to 60 disk capacity. HP states the system is consumes 61% less power and also uses 2/3 less cabling than it's predecessor. For those of you interested, check it out here.

Tech Jobs and Minimum wage

While cruising the internet searching for some tech talk, I happen to come across an article on dice.com about Tech jobs and their low wage offers. Now being someone who has worked in the IT industry for quite sometime,I often remember when everything was milk and honey. Then, Lehman Brothers bit the dust, and so goes the rest of the market and the recession hit. So, in the that small amount of time, there have been requisition after requisition posted by various firms and companies looking for Level 1 Help Desk, PC technician, Service Desk Analyst.

These positions mentioned used to pay $18 - $22 an hour, now as mentioned in the article the positions are paying $12 an hour today. The option to outsource IT professionals at such a low cost has impacted the market to a point where some professionals can not even afford to partake in it. Rather than babble, check out the article here.

Linux Mag's Linux for Small Business Servers

The good folks over at Linux Magazine have posted an article about linux for Small Business Servers. The article is geared towards the administrators who seek to consolidate their service requirements into a single server. Good read can be read here.

AMD's Sweet 16

Advanced Micro Devices has unveiled their flagship processor, the 6300 series Opteron processor. The Opteron 6386 S processor features 16 cores, a maximum clock frequency of 3.5Ghz, as well as quad channel memory supporting up to 1.8Ghz clock frequency. AMD is aiming the new series of processors at the Virtualized Data Center. Check out the details here.

AMD Aiming for ARM

As the market shifts, so must the brand. Advanced Micro Devices have been in the x86 market for the majority of their existence and are now adjusting their aim. The company is now looking at the ARM market for adopting the intellectual property (IP) for a new segment of processors to come. An AMD processor with ARM technology would allow the company to venture into various markets such as very low powered devices such as Web servers, Routers and Firewalls. Check out the details here.

Calxeda Raises Stakes in Server Computing

As noted many times before on 2cpu, low power chips in servers are making their way to a rack near you. This time around, Calxeda has raised funds to pursue their attempt at utilizing ARM based Systems on Chip (SoC) to advance progress in the server market. Apache web servers and firewalls are markets where lower power chips such as ARM base can find themselves in roles. Check out the skinny here.

Facebook Redesigns the Server

While people are usually posting flicks of their daily lives, there is alot more going on in the back end of the social media world. Facebook has become a major player in the OpenRack project of server computing and is leading the way in redesigning the server for the datacenter. Check out this slide show here from Rick Merrit of EET.

HP Projects Micro Servers To Be 15% of Market

When the term server is used, it usually pops an image of a 5U Blade device. Well, that could all change. HP previously launched a product called, "Proliant Micro server". It was a small form factor server for the SOHO, check it out here. HP is projecting that these servers will make up 15% of the market share for servers delivered on the market. The move to low power processors featured in Smartphones and SmartTV's have opened up a new market for network appliances that utilize very little power and providing performance necessary to function for edge applications. Check out the blurb here.

Rackspace and OpenStack Cert Program Coming

For those of you who are moving into the Cloud development workspace, Rackspace will be moving forward with training and certification program for the Openstack project. If you're interested, check out the info here.

Intel and ARM Server War heating up

While many can only remember the biggest battle in server wars was between AMD and their Opteron processor and Intel and their 800lb Xeon processor. The latest war has been between Intel and ARM on low power server solutions. RapidIO and ARM have been in talks about adopting interconnect technologies from RapidIO for the ARM server platform. Intel is currently working on integrating networking technologies into Xeon processor for future scalability. Check out the details here.

Samsung To Enter the Server Market?

With the market being filled with flat panel based televisions and smartphones, it's interesting to see a company as a major player in the mobility market, choose to make an entry into the server market. Samsung is set to unleash a system on chip (SoC) with multi-core, ARM chip based on the ARMv8 platform. The chips will be aimed at low energy consumption, edge servers.

10 Ways Modular DataCenters Can Help Your Business

If you're in the IT industry and wondered how to reduce cost, you can start with your data center. From reducing the size of the foot print, to cooling and power cost, as well as computing efficiency. The good guys over at eWeek have posted a break down of 10 reasons why a modular data center can actually help your business. Check out the article here.

Cisco Cuts Over 1,000 Jobs

Out of the recession, but back in the slump network giant, Cisco has reportedly trimmed the fat within their business with new layoffs. The company announced that it would restructure itself starting with lay offs of over 1,000 employees or 2% of it's staff. The restructuring will allow the company to also reduce operation cost. Check out the blurb here.

What Food Trucks Can Teach IT Professionals

With my time of working in Information Technology and living in the city, I've notice a growing number of food trucks in the district in the last 9 months. But, I never put together the role of IT professionals and increase in Food Truck operations in the district. Well, not too long ago Information Week posted an article on What Food Trucks can teach IT Pros, very interesting piece to read, check it out here.

SUSE Shifting Focus To The Cloud

One company that been quiet for many moons is SUSE. The european linux distribution is apart of the OpenStack community and have pushed a beta of Private Cloud with their latest release of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11. Combining the ease of installation of SUSE with Yast and the integration of cloud building from a local stand point should make development network services that much more simplistic for IT administrators. Check out the blurb here.

IT Roles That Could Be Facing Extiction

With all the merging and emerging of technologies in the recent decade, its no wonder many roles have vanished. Level 1 help desk has been practically replace with robo automation for troubleshooting end users. But on a higher level, Global knowledge posted a piece on four position that could be in jeopardy. Programming be one of the four, seems to be on the high list. Sounds crazy? Check out the article here.